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- [00:00]
Dana Schwartz
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human that feeling when you're trying
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- [01:05]
Carrie Brownstein
Hey Portlandia fans Carrie Brownstein and Fred
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Dana Schwartz
Armisen here the dream of the 90s
- [01:10]
Fred Armisen
is alive in podcast form.
- [01:12]
Carrie Brownstein
We're launching Podlandia AO Rewatch our brand new podcast where we revisit every episode of Portlandia together, breaking down sketches, going deep on our iconic characters and pulling back the curtain on how it all got made.
- [01:24]
Fred Armisen
And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life, guest stars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Krisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more.
- [01:36]
Carrie Brownstein
Kyle is going for it. Here you fully improvised not just words, but a song about.
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Dana Schwartz
Well, I thought you were all going
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Hello Toothpaste Advertiser
to write a song.
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Carrie Brownstein
I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia AO rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:53]
Dana Schwartz
Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Erin Menkey. Listener discretion advised. It's May of 1937 and Wallis Simpson is the most hated woman in England. Only months earlier, her soon to be husband, King Edward viii, had announced his abdication. After learning Wallis would not receive the title of Her Royal Highness, he declared over radio broadcast, I have found it impossible to discharge my duties as king without the help and support of the woman I love. Whether or not it had been his intention, Edward had painted a target on his beloved's back. As a twice divorced American socialite, she was already seen by many as utterly unsuitable for the royal family. But the abdication made her the scapegoat for an entire constitutional crisis. Wallis became a modern lilith in the eyes of the British public, having seduced and ensnared her target away from his duties. That may, her divorce from her previous husband was finally finalized and she and Edward were set to marry in June. As she prepared to become the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis had two choices. To soften her image or to lean into her reputation as a temptress. How would she do that? Through fashion, of course. She once said, I'm not a beautiful woman, I'm nothing to look at, so the only thing I can do is dress better than anyone else. And dress well. She did. For a pre wedding photoshoot with Vogue, Wallis managed to find a gown that conveyed both an ethereal lightness and a cheeky sexuality. This woman's dinner dress was made of ivory silk organza, perfect for a bride to be. Except the dress also had one extremely notable detail, a large printed lobster positioned between her legs. The gown was a collaboration between two prominent the artist Salvador Dali, who repeatedly featured the lobster motif as a representation of sexuality in his work, and the women's fashion designer of the moment, Elsa Schiaparelli. The photo of Simpson, taken by Cecil Beaton and published in an eight page spread in the June 1937 issue of Vogue, ultimately only fueled the public's hatred of Wallis Simpson. The dress was too bold, too weird, too sexual. But Wallis would get the last laugh in fashion history. Schiaparelli only continued to soar to new heights as a designer, and the lobster dress remains one of her most recognizable works to this day. It currently resides in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Schiaparelli donated a large archive of her work. Though the Schiaparelli fashion house would shutter in 1954, it was revived in 2013 and has referenced the lobster motif in 21st century designs. The original look represents the magic of Elsa Schiaparelli's work, her ability to tap into the artistic and surreal without sacrificing glamour and wearability. Much of her business was built on her understanding of what the modern woman wanted. For example, she knew to draw the line when Dali wanted to smear the lobster with mayonnaise. Listeners might be familiar with Schiaparelli's name, but they may be surprised to learn of her Italian noble origins, which can be traced back through her maternal line. That lineage influenced her father, friends and clients in adulthood. Despite her heritage, the story of scap, as she often called herself, wasn't always as glamorous as her gowns. There was the matter of her con man husband, the cutthroat nature of the couture industry, and later, the suspicion that she may have had more in common with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Beyond fashion. As listeners of this podcast may recall from our episode, the Duke and Adolf Hitler, Edward and Wallace are remembered for being, at the very least, Nazi sympathizers. During the Second World War, Elsa was accused of being everything from a Vichy spy to a Nazi collaborator and was monitored by both US and British intelligence services. Much of their suspicion had to do with her vast network of connections across European nobility and political royalty and her alleged willingness to use those connections to the best of her advantage. The truth behind those rumors is certainly more complicated than the situation was with the Windsors. This is an episode about the extraordinary rise of and near fall of the utterly singular Elsa Schiaparelli. While many nobles and politicians played their parts in her success over the years, one cannot deny that in the end, it was all her design. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood. When Elsa Schiaparelli was born in Rome In September of 1890, her parents were expecting a boy. Unprepared for a daughter, they scrambled for a name. At the christening, her German nurse was called Elsa, so that would do with her naming. Elsa wrote in her autobiography, the struggle had begun. It was the kind of struggle we have seen many times on this podcast, the struggle of a child who wants for nothing save for warmth and attention. Her father was a successful scholar from a family of successful scholars. Her mother was the daughter of a marquis, and her maternal ancestry could be traced back to the southern aristocrats from Naples. Descended from dukes of Tuscany, Elsa never spoke much of her mother, Maria Luisa. But we know Maria Luisa grew up as the ugly duckling, always compared to her more beautiful sister. Maria Luisa then replicated that familiar dynamic with her own daughters, with Elsa treated as the inferior beauty compared to her elder sister, Beatrice. In her memoir, Elsa recounts an incident in which, convinced of her own ugliness, she decided she wanted to become a beautiful flower. She, quote, unquote, planted seeds in her ears, nose and mouth, and it took two doctors to remove them all. Years later, her friend Dali would stage a public work by sending a woman to feed the pigeons in Trafalgar Square with her head entirely covered in flowers. Young Schiaparelli was an artist in her own right. Her father's books inspired a love of the ancients in her and as a teenager she wrote a collection of poems. Elsa showed them to her academic uncle, who later published them. Her parents, horrified by the romantic content of her poems, shipped her off to a Swiss convent school. It was likely there that Elsa first learned to sew. But the free spirited Italian girl was otherwise horribly at odds with the school's puritan culture. After getting in trouble for bathing naked, Elsa began a hunger strike. News of her protest made it back to her family and her father swiftly retrieved her. Her defiance had won the day, but there would be more to fight at home. Her parents had already chosen her a husband, a wealthy Russian man who utterly repulsed Elsa. By this point, she was in her early 20s and the threat of making good on the marriage promise loomed ever closer. When a friend offered her a job as a caretaker in England, she jumped at the opportunity to leave behind Rome and her suitor. Elsa traveled to London by train, stopping for a few days in Paris. It was the 1910s and something radical was happening to French women's clothing. Full length skirts and petticoats were disappearing. Structured rigidness was giving way to soft drapery, in part inspired by the ballet Ruse's recent production of Scheherazade, with costumes designed by Leon Bakst. During Elsa's brief stay in Paris, she was invited to a ball. Having no dress, she went to the shops and bought bolts of fabric which she draped upon herself. The dress she engineered was apparently quite the hit, but she hadn't thought much about its practicality and it began to unravel as the night went on. As she recalled in her memoir, Schiaparelli decided then and there, this is the place where I'm going to live. Still, she had a commitment in London, and while it was no Paris, she enjoyed the opportunity to explore the new city. One night in London, she attended a lecture on theosophy, the new age philosophical religious movement. The lecturer was, in Elsa's opinion, rather handsome in a queer way, and captivated the audience with his talk on the power of the soul. After the lecture, the two began talking and didn't stop. The next morning they were engaged. When the news reached Elsa's parents, they rushed to London to stop their daughter. But they were too late. Wilhelm Devent de Koehler, age 30, and Elsa Luisa Maria Schiaparelli, 23, were married in London on July 21, 1914. By marrying Wilhelm, Elsa obtained the title of countess. Who exactly was this man, this alleged count? That is a Great question. Though not a simple one to answer. It might be easier to tell you what he wasn't. He was not a count by any family lineage, nor was he a doctor or a professor, as he sometimes claimed to be. He was born Wilhelm Friedrich Wendt, but went by numerous variations of that name, including the one on his marriage license. He hailed from Geneva, but claimed he was Polish, Austrian, French or English, depending on the day. He offered services as a medium, a clairvoyant, a palm reader, really. Whatever was en vogue at the moment, it's probably clear to you that what Wilhelm really was was a con man. While Elsa likely didn't know the extent of her new husband's mendacious tendencies, how could she, after all, after such a quick elopement? I imagine she was drawn to his confidence in creating his own success. It's a trait mirrored in herself. For example, in London, Wilhelm ran his business out of one Piccadilly Place. Piccadilly Place is not the famed Piccadilly Circus, but rather an alley off the road. But Wilhelm understood it was the name that mattered. Years later, when Schiaparelli first established herself in the Parisian fashion scene, she knew that her shop had to be on the glamorous Rue de la Paix. Never mind that her living space above the shop was actually a rat infested attic. In 1915, Wilhelm, or Dr. Karolor, was sentenced to six weeks in prison, followed by deportation under the Vagrancy act, which punished every person pretending or professing to tell fortunes or using any subtle craft, by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive and impose on any of His Majesty's subjects. Almost a year to the day after their marriage, Elsa and Wilhelm packed their things and left England. Her memoir does not actually reveal how she felt about this turn of events. Because of the war, Elsa's dream of moving to Paris was not an option. Instead, the couple crossed the Atlantic on the SS Chicago, which, despite its name, actually sailed to New York. What did Wilhelm do when he reached the land of opportunity? Started reading poems again? Of course, I could detail Wilhelm's various New York ventures, including a vaudeville stint, but that would be its own episode. For now, just know. Life in New York for Elsa was not ideal. The couple was making very little money on their own and they lived off the wedding dowry and an allowance from Elsa's parents. Five years into marriage, Wilhelm's charm was wearing off. He was once again under suspicion of the law and his constant endeavors were getting tired. Elsa was starting to build connections outside of her husband. On a 1916 boat trip, she met Gabrielle Buffet Picabia, wife of the French artist and surrealist Francis Picabia. The two had a number of things in common. For one, Gabrielle was descended from minor French aristocracy, just as Elsa was descended from minor Italian aristocracy. For another, both of their marriages were falling apart. Gabrielle would become an extremely important person in Elsa's life. Despite Elsa's failing marriage, she became pregnant in the fall of 1919. Their daughter, Maria Luisa Yvonne Rata de Kerlor, was born in June of 1920, and Wilhelm appears to have walked out on his family shortly after. Elsa appears to have never sought out Wilhelm for child support. The girl, who had gone on a hunger strike in boarding school, had grown into a woman determined to do things her own way. At times, Gabrielle helped take care of the baby, or Elsa boarded the baby with a hired caretaker. The daughter came to be known as Gogo, and as an adult, she described the origin of her nickname. Her mother was constantly on the move, still maintaining a full social calendar, despite the tenuous financial situation she was in. I would look up and say, go, go. Going, go, go, go. Recounted So I was called Gogo and it stuck. Ironically, it describes Mother's maternal pattern perfectly. Gogo's childhood was defined by an early polio diagnosis and time spent between various clinics where Elsa was not always present. They maintained a strained relationship through Gogo's adulthood. Her wedding was conditioned, conveniently held while her mother was away across the ocean. Elsa's luck in New York was running out. Paris called to her again, and her friend Gabrielle was already on her way there. Before Elsa left New York, she made sure Gogo had an American passport and she legally changed her surname from De Courlor to Schiaparelli. Elsa's divorce from Wilhelm was eventually finalized in 1924, and four years later he was murdered in Mexico under very mysterious circumstances. An enigmatic end for an enigmatic man. Neither his wife nor his daughter had seen him since he'd walked out on them years ago, and Elsa never married again. Elsa and Gogo sailed for France in June of 1922. Paris was struggling after four years of war, but that made it cheap to live in. It's partially what drew Elsa to the capital, alongside other creatives like Picasso, Modigliani, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein. Women's fashion had become even more more radical than when Elsa first visited in the previous decade. Hemlines had risen above the ankle and hairdos had risen above the neck. Gabi not only temporarily housed Elsa and Gogo upon their arrival, but found the latter a new doctor working with experimental technology and made the connection. That kick started Elsa's first fashion career. Gabby and her husband were friends of Paul Poiret, the designer who, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, quote, effectively established the canon of modern dress and developed the blueprint of the modern fashion industry. He pioneered the draped corset free silhouette that was coming to define define the era. Porrette hired Gabby to host an event, but she had no money to buy a new evening dress. As she had done for herself years earlier, Elsa draped the fabric directly onto Gabby's body, creating what would be one of the first ever Schiaparelli dresses. This time, however, she was more careful with her pins and the dress didn't become undone. Over the course of the evening, Poret conveyed his compliments to the designer, and Elsa decided a designer was exactly what she would become. Schiaparelli began to assemble a portfolio of designs using herself as a model. While she did not have formal training beyond her convent sewing lessons, the loose modern style style left room for error. Her breakthrough, however, came not from a dress, but a sweater. Sweaters at this point in history were considered sportswear and were largely shapeless, utilitarian garments. The story goes that Elsa met an American woman wearing a quote, most unusual sweater, structured and fitted thanks to its double stitching. Elsa found out that the garment had been hand knitted by an Armenian woman known as Mikke and asked her to collaborate. Schiaparelli designed a simple, fitted sweater with a witty trompole bow at the neck, and Miike executed it. The significance of the bow, a printed illusion, was that for the first time, the modern woman did not have to fasten a real bow to her garment. Just as she didn't have to layer petticoats or fasten corsets. The design was nodding to the trimmings of the past while moving with the tide towards casual dressing. Elsa showed the sweaters in her May 1927 collection, and a year later, the New Yorker was confidently stating that, quote, schiaparelli, after all, belongs to knitted sweaters and they to her. During that year, Elsa attracted the attention of a businessman named Charles Kahn, associated with the Galeries Lafayette department store. As partners, they formally launched the firm of Schiaparelli in December 1927. Elsa soon launched her first maison de Couture, located at 4 Rue de la Paix. The attic above, as mentioned earlier, became her frankly dingy living space and studio. As we all know, a woman must have some money and a room of her own if she is to design. Schiaparelli's success would always be in understanding her customer. She once said, in designing, I consider both clothes and the body. Architecturally, structure and line are the all important factors in the construction of fashions. And of course, comfort too. Clothes must look as if they belong to the woman who wears them, or they're not right. You may be thinking that 1927 was a bad time to open a luxury business. But Schiaparelli's philosophy of combining style and practicality made her clothing a desired commodity. She had an excellent eye for seeing holes in the market and understanding how she could fill them. In 1931, exports of French luxury goods were down 50% from the year before. But for Schiaparelli, her 400 employees were making between 7 and 8,000 garments a year by 1934. She did excellent business abroad. Even through the Depression, Americans couldn't get enough of her, the New Yorker claimed. Today, she is recognized as the leading smart designer. As the house of Schiaparelli grew, so did Elsa's ideas. In the 1930s, she expanded the house's market and began to design more evening wear. Her clothes became more structured, featuring the broad, strong shoulders she's known for today. At the time, Vogue commented clothes carpenter that she is, Schiaparelli builds up the shoulders, planed them off and carves a decisive line from under the arms to the hip bone, gouging in the waist. In 1934, Time featured her on the COVID and proclaimed her a genius. Around this time, Elsa began her collaboration with Dali. Their first design was a suit with descending drawers as pockets. Then there was the tears gown, which featured a print designed to look like tears in the fabric alongside real ones. And a skeleton dress which featured full length gloves and a 3D skeleton effect made to look like the wearer had a second skin. And who could forget the shoe hat, which was, well, a hat in the shape of a shoe. Elsa's surrealist designs were embraced because she was able to transform the abstract into the wearable. She had bridged the gap between art and commerce. When she was designing, her mind went up into the rarefied skies of her most fantastic imagination and set off cascades of photographs. Fireworks, fantasy and ingenuity broke forth. Elsa designed gloves that looked like hands. Picasso, meanwhile, painted hands that looked like gloves. Elsa's rival, Coco Chanel, once called her quote, that Italian artist who makes clothes. It was meant to be a put down, but can hardly be qualified as such such. Speaking of that rivalry, one legend goes that Chanel once invited Elsa to Dance and then spun her right into an open flame. Elsa was less interested in a little black dress and more so in bright hot pink, a shade she invented and dubbed Shocking pink. When she launched a perfume line, the first and best known scent would be called Shocking Exclamation Point. The bottle, designed with Dali, was shaped like the actress Mae West's torso. In Europe, Schiaparelli had a certain amount of social cachet thanks to her noble lineage, and she was able to easily integrate with the right circles of artists and taste makers. These duchesses and socialites and actresses became her best clients. Katharine Hepburn credits a Schiaparelli makeover as kickstarting her career and Elsa began to design costumes for films of her clients. She was less a fan of the English noblewomen, complaining that the great ladies never paid their bills. Of those women, Bettina Shaw Jones holds particular importance. Bettina was a Long island socialite and aspiring author who made her way to Paris and fell in love with a young married politician, Gaston Bergery. The two would eventually marry themselves and Gaston's name will return in a bit. But for now, Bettina entered Elsa's life by repeatedly begging her for a job until the latter relented. She became Schiaparelli's first public relations director and stayed with the house through the 1950s. In 1935, Elsa moved from her salon at the Rue de la paix into a 98 room spot space at the Place Vendome. She no longer had to live above her shop. Two years later she bought an 18 room mansion once owned by Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, a niece of Napoleon's. Schiaparelli wrote, I learned years later, to my great surprise, that I was distantly, very distantly related to the Princess. I bought it on the spot in 1939 as tensions were rising in Europe. Schiaparelli was at the height of her fame and power. She asserts in her memoir that she had never taken part in politics. That is a blatant lie, or at least a blatant self delusion. Post war French intelligence established that in 1939 she was a member of a group that was a loose assembly of socialists, revolutionaries and other interested parties known as the Solidarity Internationale Antifaciste. In those early months, Parisian life for Elsa went on as usual. In fact, the parties only seemed to get bigger and clients were more eager than ever to see what Schiaparelli would come up with. Next, to misquote, the musical life was an atelier. Elsa's designs could not be detached from larger shifts happening in the World evening dresses she showed in 1939 featured gathered fabric in the back resembling a misshapen bustle or perhaps a backwards apron. The revival of the bustle was becoming a larger industry trend, and the corset threatened to return. The New Yorker published in the summer of 1939. Couturiers are reviving the days when it was a man's world and women suffered discomfort making themselves decorative. It was that same fateful summer in which Germany invaded Poland and Britain and France declared war on the Third Reich. Parisians panicked, believing their city would be attacked immediately, as it had been in World War I. Schiaparelli's atelier fitted its basement as a shelter. She was still open for business, but there wasn't much business to to be had. European customers were not ordering couture. Much of her staff had left, and some of her peers were closing their doors. Elsa, ingenious as always, started designing. For the moment. There was her famous siren suit, a jumpsuit that could be quickly pulled on with wide legs, a fitted bodice and pockets large enough to carry identity papers and flashlights. There was a carry all bag designed to fit a gas mask and a first aid kit, as well as a powder puff and lipstick. She didn't forget evening wear. Large pockets became an accessory, embroidered and gilded. And as for her perfume line, she designed a bottle shaped like a candlestick, knowing that soon electricity would be in short supply. Meanwhile, the war escalated. Outside of Paris, Elsa began to house refugees, up to 30 at once in her home. Downstairs, she hosted a meeting place for British officers, volunteer American ambulance drivers and women in the French mechanized transportation port corps. On the morning of June 14, Elsa received a call. Chap, the Germans will be in Paris in a few hours. A friend of the cabinet relayed. I advise you for many reasons to leave immediately. Elsa and about 20 of her staff immediately traveled south. They were offered space in an associates summer home. Despite the threat of an occupied Paris, Elsa's greatest concern was still finishing her fall collection. Though her business seemed to survive crisis after crisis, things had finally come to a breaking point. The armistice was signed on June 22. Elsa had signed on for a coast to coast lecture tour that was slated to start later in the year, and she decided to leave right away. She had already obtained the necessary travel permits for Spain and Portugal and was granted a lucrative American visa without much trouble because she knew the man well who was in charge of the distribution. Elsa traveled with two titled French French women and their sons, whom she intended to help cross the border. One of the Fathers did not want his child to leave the country, so Elsa smuggled him past the security checkpoint by hiding him in her coat. Fashion functional as ever, somehow always getting what she wanted. Elsa obtained Cross Atlantic tickets for herself and everyone in her party. They arrived in New York on July 20, 1940, alongside the US ambassador to France who had been recalled. Elsa was safe and reunited with Gogo. For the next part of the story, I must briefly detail some French history. During the Second World War, France split into two zones, one occupied by Germany and one ostensibly controlled by France. The latter free zone, was Vichy France, governed by authoritarian French nationalists willing to make major concessions to the Germans. The Vichy founding document was called the Burgery Declaration, written by Bettina's husband. Finished with her American tour, Elsa decided not to stay in the safety of New York, but return to France, where she knew she could live comfortably in Vichy France under the protection of her powerful friends. Her ability to move so freely was seemingly due to the, let's say, diversity of these powerful names. While most of her aristocratic friends were anti war, she had a number of friends and associates, like the Duchess of Windsor, who were the wives of pro German politicians. Elsa allegedly dressed the wife of Otto Abetz, a former art teacher who became Hitler's ambassador to occupied France. When Elsa returned to Paris from Vichy, she claimed her house was, quote, under neutral diplomatic protection. She hosted dinner parties in the cellar with real coffee sent over from contacts at the Belgian Embassy. While still playing at being the socialite, Elsa knew she could only keep keep up the lifestyle for so long. Her ability to stay, quote, unquote neutral or play both sides was a ticking time bomb. As she reflected vaguely in her memoir, the pressure against me, though indefinite, was increasingly oppressive. Although I avoided every issue, I found myself rather on the spot. German occupiers were becoming suspicious. Her fashion house and perfume business had been placed under the control of a German commissioner and her bank account was frozen. The Americans were not looking favorably upon her either. Elsa said during her tour that Parisian fashion would continue to be preeminent and couldn't be replaced. Replaced by American talent. Perhaps the FBI believed the Vichy had paid her to say that. While dossiers were being assembled behind the scenes, some allegations were out in the open. The New York Daily Mirror published a letter it received from a French imports specialist who had briefly dated Elsa. In his letter, he claimed that Schiaparelli had an espionage system within her own company, encouraging her Italian doorman to gossip with clients, chauffeurs, while her shop girls listened in and reported back at first, the special agent assigned to her case believed this to be outside of the FBI's province. But later, after the German manager of her New York perfume business was labeled an enemy, the FBI began to look closer. The rumor of an internal espionage system was soon believed by Hoover himself. Despite American suspicion, Elsa was returning to New York. Her French passport was set to expire in the summer of 1941, and she was able to obtain a precious quota immigrant visa that allowed her to work in the us. She once wrote, what seemed impossible was really very simple if you had good friends. Elsa arrived at LaGuardia Airport via the Pan Am Clipper in May 1941. Reporters on the scene wanted to know how she had been able to leave France so easily. The FBI monitored her movements. Elsa's response was to rent a cottage on Long island near the water, where she swam and caught mussels for dinner. She later wrote, my conscience tortured me because though one's conscience does not prevent one from acting or sinning, it will not let one appreciate and enjoy the result of it, even if there is a doubt. Did her conscience torture her because she lived peacefully while others suffered the realities of war? Or was she tortured by a greater complicity? While her couture business suffered, Schiaparelli's perfume was still doing well stateside. South American sales alone were about $50,000 a year. So Elsa took a seven week tour to make new business contacts. Her own distribution manager became suspicious. Knowing of her closeness to the Bergeris and the German designs for South America, he believed she was doing Vichy business while abroad. An FBI write up of the trip read, while in South America, Madame Schiaparelli dropped hints in private conversations to the effect that South America would do well to look to Europe not only as a center of post war fashions. The FBI continued to build a case against her. An associate, Count Rene de Chambron, descendant of Lafayette and husband of the Vichy president's daughter, allegedly said he found Madame Schiaparelli of the greatest use in so much as she could move in and out of occupied France apparently at will. But the more the FBI dug, the less damning evidence they found. Elsa had, as I mentioned, historically been involved in leftist circles, and her sympathies for the Vichy did not automatically make her a spy. While she was cagey in French circles, she was openly anti Mussolini and detested what he was doing in her home country. She was a businesswoman, one interviewee reminded the FBI. South America was where the perfume sales were. And why would she say she publicly supported American fashion over her own industry. The question of Elsa's innocence would not be resolved until the war was over. Summoned to explain herself, she had this simple answer for her. I told this strange self appointed counsel that my only crime was was to have boldly defended the good name of French dressmaking from the beginning of the war to the end of it. Elsa was ultimately not charged. For her own part, she declines to mention anything regarding the FBI in her memoir. From there, Schiaparelli began the campaign to restore her good name and her house's former status. It was unfortunately a thankless endeavor. The war had fundamentally changed the fashion industry. It was that up and comer Christian Dior's new look that was now in fashion. And Elsa fundamentally rejected the return of the corset and petticoat silhouette. By 1954, she closed the heavily indebted design house. She told the New York Times, life has changed for elegant women. Even people with money aren't spending it the way they used to. Today, only a feeble minority of women will pay the prices we are forced to ask. The same year her house closed, Elsa published her autobiography, Shocking Life. She would maintain her friendship and her globe trotting lifestyle for the rest of her days. But as Bettina wrote in her diary, when she shut her shop, she lost half of herself. Elsa Schiaparelli died in November 1973 at the age of 83. Despite her complicated history, Gogo was one of the few attendees at her intimate funeral in 1969. Only a few years earlier, Elsa donated a collection of 71 pieces to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Thirty years after her death, they opened the exhibit Shocking A career Retrospective that framed her as a true fashion revolutionary. That's our story about the complicated life of Elsa Schiaparelli. But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear where the House of Schiaparelli is today.
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- [47:00]
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- [48:02]
Skyline Drive Podcast Host
together and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about and what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science.
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Dana Schwartz
I can make a brain for you and then we can test what drug
- [48:28]
Skyline Drive Podcast Host
is the best for your brain as
- [48:31]
Dana Schwartz
opposed to his brain.
- [48:32]
Skyline Drive Podcast Host
Here are some hard truths that I
- [48:34]
Dana Schwartz
would explain Expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year
- [48:42]
Skyline Drive Podcast Host
acceleration and get myself into a world of trouble.
- [48:46]
Dana Schwartz
I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know.
- [48:52]
Skyline Drive Podcast Host
Listen to Skyline Drive how to Live Forever on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [49:01]
Dana Schwartz
In 2006, the Schiaparelli name was acquired by an Italian luxury goods company. After 60 years of laying dormant, Mason Schiaparelli relaunched its Couture business in 2014. It was in 2019, however, with the appointment of Daniel Rosebery as creative director, that Schiaparelli regained its status as the premier avant garde fashion house. Recently, he designed the dramatic lace ball gown Margot Robbie wore to the premiere of the movie Wuthering Heights, the suit Bad Bunny wore to the Grammys, and the skirt suit that Dua Lipa wore to her courthouse wedding. As Daniel told Elle magazine, I like that Elsa was a challenger and that she had humor. That's what I want to continue, Salvador Dali said, no one knows how to say Schiaparelli, but everyone knows what it means, and that's the sweet spot we're always looking for. As an extra tidbit, listeners who would like visual references for the designs discussed today can head over to the nobleblood Instagram or Patreon, where our own mini Schiaparelli archive has been assembled. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim Mild from Erin Manke. Nobleblood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz. Writers for Noble Blood are Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Paul Jaffe, Natasha Lasky, and me, Dana Schwartz. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk and Nick Gnomes Griffin, with supervising producer Rima Il Kayali and executive producers Aaron Menke, Trevor Young and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. This is an iHeart podcast Guarantee Human.